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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Earthquake

When do you choose to describe a subject in writing, and when do you choose to paint it? For me, the answer lies in the fact that the brain allows you to absorb a picture all at once, but a story--word by word. So when the subject at hand is too overwhelming, when words fail me, this is when I pick up my paintbrush.

Then, when I finish a painting, sometimes even before the last brushstroke, I am much too eager to take a picture of it and share it with you, which results in a compromised image: the oil paint is still wet and reflects light to the camera in unintended ways. So this morning I went back to my Earthquake painting, which I finished last summer, to see if I can take a better picture than the one posted on my website.

This painting was inspired by watching the earthquake in Haiti. And now, with permission of the poet, here is a poem by my friend Michele Harvey, inspired by the experience of an earthquake in Chile.

8 comments:

The tool I used to apply the oil paint here is a credit card, which is quite versatile having sharp edges and points, and being somewhat flexible. It created a variety of textures and at the same time, was destroyed as a buying method.

Hi Uvi,I love your painting. I must mention that I was living in Chile during the 2010 earthquake which measured 8.8. This was my first earthquake experience. Afterwards, I wrote a poem which is a fictionalized account of the earthquake and it was published in The Wazee Journal. Here's a link to share: http://www.wazeejournal.org/after-the-earthquake-in-chile/Thanks - Also, your post made me think of the writing exercise where one first draws a picture and then writes a poem based on the drawing.Michele Harvey Poet at Living https://www.facebook.com/PoetMicheleHarvey

Thank you Michele for writing to me. I read your poem, and it touched me deeply, it made me feel that I am wandering across the shattered earth, still dazed like you, in the aftermath of disaster. Thank you for sharing it. I was inspired to paint Earthquake after the disaster in Haiti.

Uvi Poznansky is a bestseller, award-winning author, poet and artist. Her boxed set, A TOUCH OF PASSION, has just become the 2016 WINNER of The Romance Reviews Readers' Choice Awards.
“I paint with my pen,” she says, “and write with my paintbrush.” She received a Fellowship grant and a Teaching Assistantship from the Architecture department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she earned her M.A. in Architecture. Then, taking a sharp turn in her education, she earned her M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Uvi writes across a variety of genres: Apart From Love and The White Piano (literary fiction), My Own Voice (women's fiction), The Music of Us and Dancing with Air (romance), Rise to Power, A Peek at Bathsheba, and The Edge of Revolt (historical fiction), A Favorite Son (biblical fiction), Home (poetry), Twisted (horror), and Now I Am Paper and Jess and Wiggle (children’s books.)